Frequently Asked Questions

your questions, answered.

We’ve compiled answers to the most common questions clients ask us about mass tort cases, settlements, and our process. If you don’t see your question here, please contact us directly.

Case Process

What can I expect when you accept my case?

If one of our attorneys determines that we can accept your case for investigation, we will first need you to sign a retainer agreement and medical authorizations. Next, your case will be transferred to our litigation team to obtain medical records (evidence) necessary to prove your case. This process can take many months, and our litigation team will reach out to you directly if they have any questions or concerns.

Will you definitely be taking my case?

The attorneys at NGRV are very selective in the cases they accept, accepting only a minority of those that reach out. There are a variety of factors that our attorneys evaluate before deciding to accept a case for further investigation. Potential issues with applicable statutes of limitations (SOLs) and other state-specific laws are one of the main reasons our attorneys decline cases at intake. Not being able to meet causation criteria is the second most common reason the attorneys at NGRV decline to sign a client for further investigation.

How long will my case take to resolve?

The kinds of lawsuits NGRV primarily handles, such as pharmaceutical and medical device personal injury lawsuits, typically take several years to resolve. Our teams strive to provide multiple updates a year via newsletters on the status of the litigation. For most of the litigation, the updates will apply equally to all clients within a certain litigation or mass tort. Towards the end of a litigation, at the time when settlement decisions are being made, updates and communications become very individualized. We will contact you with questions or if there is a major update in your case. Don’t be afraid to reach out, but please be patient, as litigation is an extremely lengthy endeavor.

Will I have to go to trial?

It isn’t likely that you will have to go to trial, but it is a possibility that you must be prepared for. In general, a very small minority of lawsuits ever make their way to a trial. Most lawsuits are resolved either by motion practice and the case being dismissed, or via a settlement. If the lawsuit is part of a mass tort or MDL, it is even less likely that you will go to trial. There can be thousands of lawsuits that are consolidated into a single MDL, and each case can take approximately 1 month at trial. It is logistically impossible for the United States court system to handle so many personal injury trials. To ease this burden on the court system, most judges presiding over an MDL select test cases to work up and potentially take to trial called “Bellwether Cases.” Even out of the bellwether cases, typically only a minority of them will make it all the way to a trial.

Do you handle claims if the injury was caused by a generic medication?

In general, NGRV does not pursue claims against generic drugs and their manufacturers. Generic drugs have special legal protections that name-brand drugs are not afforded. The primary claim in most personal injury lawsuits against a drug manufacturer is called “Failure to Warn” – alleging that the company failed to warn the physician and patient of known risk. A 2011 ruling from the United States Supreme Court known as Mensing (PLIVA, Inc. v. Mensing) ruled that federal law requires generic drug manufacturers to have the same label as the name-brand drug and therefore the generic drug manufacturer cannot be sued under state law for failing to provide adequate warning labels on their drugs.

However, there are some rare occasions that the attorneys at NGRV are able to handle a personal injury claim against a generic prescription drug. Currently, NGRV is accepting personal injury cases caused by generic versions of Depo-Provera. The reason that NGRV will accept some generic versions of Depo-Provera is that the name-brand manufacturer also produced the generic versions of the drug. This is known as being an “authorized generic” – the company that determines the warning label on the name-brand drug is the same company that is selling the generic version. NGRV also represents those injured by valsartan (a generic version of Diovan) and ranitidine (a generic version of Zantac). In both of these litigations, the generic drug was contaminated with potent carcinogens. These generic drug lawsuits were focused on a manufacturing defect, as opposed to a deficiency in the drug’s warning label.

What if I die before my case is resolved?

Most importantly, your lawsuit or any settlement doesn’t go away if you die. If you pass away before the lawsuit is resolved and you don’t have a will, our team will have to follow the state intestate succession laws. These laws outline which heirs are entitled to any funds. Establishing a will is the best way to ensure that your settlement funds go to the exact people you want. We suggest finding a lawyer in your home state to set up a will if you are concerned that you will pass away before any recovery from the lawsuit is paid.

What is the statute of limitations on my case?

A statute of limitations analysis is a complex legal analysis performed by our attorneys on a case-by-case basis. It is not as simple as applying a single state’s personal injury statute of limitations to the date of injury. There are many potentially relevant state statute of limitations laws in play for any personal injury lawsuit against a medical device or pharmaceutical drug manufacturer. For instance, every state of every potential defendant in the lawsuit could impact the attorney’s statute of limitations analysis. Furthermore, when you did or could have discovered that your injury was connected to a defect in the device or drug could impact the attorney’s statute of limitations analysis.

Where can I find more information on the lawyers assigned to my case?

Our website includes an attorney bio section where you can find out information about the person assigned to your case. You can also check each individual state bar website to confirm the attorney representing you is a real attorney in good standing. If you have additional questions, please [contact our firm]

Brett can be found on the Kansas state bar website: https://directory-kard.kscourts.gov/

Note: Brett’s legal first name is Christopher. His middle name is Brett.

Ashleigh, Ava & Sam can be found on the Minnesota state bar website: https://mars.courts.state.mn.us/.
Daniel & Kathryn can be found on the Florida state bar website: https://www.floridabar.org/directories/find-mbr/
Marlene can be found on the DC state bar website: https://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/bar-memberattorney-information-lookup

Rachel can be found on the AZ state bar website: https://www.azbar.org/for-legal-professionals/practice-tools-management/member-directory/

Communication

How often will I hear from NGRV concerning my case?

Due to the complexity of the cases we take, they can take many years to resolve. We will update you quarterly at a minimum, but if there are any pertinent changes we will let you know as soon as possible. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions in the meantime! Know that our team is working diligently through millions of discovery documents, speaking with experts on the subject, and ultimately working to represent you in the best manner possible.

Fees & Costs

What costs will I incur with my case?

The most common costs in a case are those required to obtain medical records, filing fees, and the common benefit costs. This does not encompass all the costs, but you will not have to pay until your case is won.

What are common benefit costs?

Common benefit costs are costs that you, as the client, would have to incur in an individual case if you were not part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL). This is ont of the advantages of an MDL: you are able to split these costs among all the Plaintiffs. Learn more in our blog post about common benefit fees!

What is NGRV’s fee?

Our fee is determined by the complexity of cases that we take on, which also includes the amount of time it takes for our team to work on these cases. Unlike a standard case which could take 9 to 18 months to resolve, a mass tort case could take up to five years or longer. For these reasons, our firm charges a 40% fee. Not all of this percentage goes back to the firm; there is a significant portion of this fee that goes back to the court in the form of common benefit.

Will the fee and other costs take up my entire settlement?

There are three common costs in a case: medical records, filing fees, and common benefit costs. There are others, but these are the most common. We do our very best to keep costs down as our firm fronts everything that comes out of your settlement, not seeing any of that money back until you are paid as well. We have never experienced fees being so high that a client does not get any money back from their settlement. If we foresee anything additional, our team will reach out and discuss with you directly.

Is my settlement taxable?

Our team does not specialize in tax law, so we encourage you to reach out to an accountant to determine if your settlement is taxable. Generally, personal injury cases are not taxable, but this can vary by state. Read our Taxability on Settlements blog post for more information.

What is a health insurance lien? Why do I have to pay it back?

When you use your health insurance to cover medical bills, your insurance company typically pays those bills upfront. However, most insurance agreements include a “subrogation” clause, which allows your health insurance provider to be reimbursed for those payments if your injury was caused by a third party. Subrogation allows the health insurance provider to recover costs from your settlement or verdict, ensuring that they aren’t paying for someone else’s negligence.

Understanding Mass Torts

What is a mass tort?

A mass tort is a consolidation of civil lawsuits, typically involving several hundred to thousands of plaintiffs who bring similar claims against the same defendant or defendants. For example, when a large number of people are injured by the same drug or device, a mass tort is typically appropriate. The purpose of a mass tort is efficiency. A mass tort is more efficient for the court system because every lawsuit must go through a similar discovery process to obtain documents and depose company witnesses, and all of that can happen at once in a mass tort. Because a mass tort can become so complex, the judge presiding over the mass tort will typically hold some bellwether trials to help the parties assess the strengths and weaknesses of the litigation, in hopes of furthering settlement. If the mass tort doesn’t settle, then the presiding judge has the option to send all the lawsuits back to their home jurisdictions for trial.

What’s the difference between a mass tort and a class action?

The main difference between a mass tort and a class action, and which is appropriate, comes down to how the individual damages are quantifiable. Damages in class actions are more quantifiable and easier to predict. For instance, if everyone overpaid X amount for the electricity they used, a simple formula could determine each plaintiff’s damages – this makes it appropriate for a class action. The harder it is to quantify damages and predict damages amongst the plaintiffs, the more likely a mass tort is appropriate. For instance, the damages in personal injury cases vary widely from person to person, and are also impacted by causation and other factors.

All the plaintiffs in a class action are then lumped together as a single “class” and the success of the litigation depends less on individual circumstances and more on the success of the class. Unlike in a class action lawsuit, each plaintiff in a mass tort or MDL maintains their own individual lawsuit, meaning that compensation is more likely to be based on an individual’s specific injuries, medical history, and circumstances.

Pharmaceutical lawsuits can fall into either class action or mass tort, depending on the claims alleged. If the pharmaceutical lawsuit is for overpaying for a medication, then a class action is most appropriate. If the pharmaceutical lawsuits are for personal injury, then a mass tort is most appropriate.

What are the benefits of an MDL case?

One of the main benefits of an MDL is that the cost of the litigation is shared among all plaintiffs filing. If you were to file individually, a case like this could cost hundreds of thousands, if not a million dollars. In order to go up against a pharmaceutical or medical device manufacturer, we must retain the very best expert witnesses in the nation, and top-tier expert witnesses don’t come cheap. The expert witnesses put in hundreds to thousands of hours helping build the case, and these costs can be spread out amongst all plaintiffs in the mass tort. What could be cost-prohibitive in a single lawsuit becomes feasible with a mass tort. Having the best experts significantly increases the chance of success in a lawsuit against medical device or pharmaceutical companies.

Obtaining a large number of corporate documents is also much more likely in an MDL than in an individual lawsuit. It cost the defense millions of dollars to produce all of the documents necessary to build a case against a pharmaceutical of medical device manufacturer. Companies frequently win the argument that it is too burdensome and costly for them to produce all of the requested documents when they are being sued by a single individual, and that the cost significantly outweighs any potential recovery. That argument is significantly weaker in an MDL, where the defendant is being sued by hundreds or thousands of plaintiffs, with a variety of theories of liability. The discovery process is one of the most important processes of the entire litigation against a pharmaceutical or medical device manufacturer. For this reason, an MDL can be a significant benefit when going against a pharmaceutical or medical device manufacturer.

Learn more in our blog post about establishing an MDL.

Case Value

How much is my case worth?

This is a question we hear from a lot of our clients; however, it is unlikely we know how much a case is worth until closer to the end of a litigation. Many things throughout the litigation process will impact the value of a case, including court decisions, depositions, trials, jury verdicts, medical records, and much more. Damages is only one part of the equation when determining the value of a lawsuit. Even more important than damages in determining the value of a case is causation and a statute of limitations analysis. Litigation is a lengthy process, and it is likely the value of your case will ebb and flow throughout the litigation, as the judge makes favorable and unfavorable rulings.

Why do other websites and AI say my lawsuit is worth more money?

Many clients search online for how much a certain case type settles for and then expect that their case is worth that much. The information that is online regarding settlement values is highly inaccurate and typically overinflated. The terms of a settlement are highly confidential, and that is why you don’t see settlement values on our website. However, there are less scrupulous law firms out there that know people search for how much a lawsuit is worth at settlement, and those law firms put fake settlement values on their website in order to rank better on search, in hopes that they can get more clients. Most of the law firms that advertise settlement values don’t actually handle the cases they get in-house; they refer them out to the law firms that follow the ethical rules and don’t put out fake settlement values.

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